[Mpi-forum] Errata handling

[Rolf Rabenseifner]

Sorry Tony,

but in the past we did errata without incrementing anything,
and it worked.
Errata change the original document because there is a bug
that must be fixed. Only this bug is fixed.
Errata never change the title page of a document,
and MPI-3.0 from Sep 21, 2012 is part of the title page
and this is not a bug, therefore not changed by errata.

If an implementor did not detect an inconsistency and 
implemented something that is wrong, then it is a bug in his
software and it needs to be fixed, latest when the 
errata is voted in, better when the inconsistency is
reolved by the chapter committee and published in a ticket. 
The software is always MPI-3.0 compliant, but with some bugs.

Please keep it simple!

Best regards
Rolf

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anthony Skjellum" <tony at cis.uab.edu>
> To: "Main MPI Forum mailing list" <mpi-forum at lists.mpi-forum.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 6:42:07 PM
> Subject: Re: [Mpi-forum] Errata handling
> We need to increment the third digit of the standard each time errata
> are accepted in this way.
> "3.0 + errata compliant" is too vague.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rolf Rabenseifner" <rabenseifner at hlrs.de>
> To: "Main MPI Forum mailing list" <mpi-forum at lists.mpi-forum.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 11:23:56 AM
> Subject: [Mpi-forum] Errata handling
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I detected that there seems to be a discussion.
> >From my viewpoint based on experience since MPI-2.0,
> the processing should be very simple and clear:
> 
> - only important errata are published, not the typos.
> - important is that the interface was definitely inconsistent
> or obviously wrong.
> - enough review by committee members, i.e., it is clear that
> the correction is correct.
> - real reading in the forum, because it is about the interface.
> - single reading + vote for corrections of inconsistencies.
> 
> Errata should pass always in the next meeting after they
> were detected.
> 
> Errata are voted and "3.0 compiant" always means 3.0+errata compliant.
> Errata are for obvious bugs and inconsistencies.
> 
> Reason:
> - Being compliant to a bug is stupied and must be corrected
> as soon as detected.
> (Example: It was never intented that you are MPI-2.2 compliant
> when having BOOL with 4 bytes in the external32 datarep.)
> - Being compliant to an inconsistency is impossible,
> because MPI-3.0 says A and not-A;
> you can never be compliant to both A and not-A.
> 
> There should be only ONE errata document, which is
> updated after each meeting if new errata are added.
> The errata should be sorted by page and linenumbers in MPI-3.0.
> 
> By this, there are older versions (visible at the date)
> of the errata document, but only the newest is binding.
> 
> If we want to have the history in, we can add for each
> erratum the following parantheses:
> 
> "(detected in ticket #nnn on May 1, 2099, voted in on Jun 16, 2099)".
> 
> Because we always should try to circulate errata in a ticket,
> all implementors have early access to the information.
> It should be voted in in the same meeting as it was read.
> That's enough. This should need 30-60 minutes in a forum meeting.
> That's fast compared to a lot of emailing or email-voting.
> 
> That's the way we did it in the past for all corrections
> in the voted Fortran interface - and it worked.
> 
> My strong recommendation:
> - Do it simple and effective!
> - And start it now!
> - Use the meeting time for content of the MPI standard
> and not for complicating the errata process.
> 
> Best regards
> Rolf
> 
> --
> Dr. Rolf Rabenseifner . . . . . . . . . .. email rabenseifner at hlrs.de
> High Performance Computing Center (HLRS) . phone ++49(0)711/685-65530
> University of Stuttgart . . . . . . . . .. fax ++49(0)711 / 685-65832
> Head of Dpmt Parallel Computing . . . www.hlrs.de/people/rabenseifner
> Nobelstr. 19, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany . (Office: Room 1.307)
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-- 
Dr. Rolf Rabenseifner . . . . . . . . . .. email rabenseifner at hlrs.de
High Performance Computing Center (HLRS) . phone ++49(0)711/685-65530
University of Stuttgart . . . . . . . . .. fax ++49(0)711 / 685-65832
Head of Dpmt Parallel Computing . . . www.hlrs.de/people/rabenseifner
Nobelstr. 19, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany . (Office: Room 1.307)